<p>Thanks, Luminouzz. Here’s another idea: If you haven’t done so already, fill out the free questionnaire at FastWeb.com.</p>
<p>This will alert you to private scholarships for which you may be eligible. The FastWeb scholarship database includes scholarship options based on all sorts of criteria–from where you live to your ethnic background to your parent(s)’ place of employment. Of course, there are also those awarded for the most common reasons (academics and special talents). The dollar amounts range from small to very large, so you’ll obviously have to expect a lot of competition for the biggies. Some of the scholarships you’ll find on FastWeb require minimal effort to apply while others may make you jump through lots of hoops. So you can review the list and see which ones cry out to you.</p>
<p>But two key things to keep in mind as you proceed:</p>
<p>1) In most cases, the best financial aid comes from the colleges themselves and not from outside sources.</p>
<p>2) If you do win an outside scholarship, some colleges will lop the amount right off of your financial aid award. Most commonly, the scholarship amount will be deducted from whatever loans the college plans to give you, so that’s not a problem. But sometimes the outside scholarship amount is deducted from the *grant<a href=“i.e.,%20the%20good%20stuff%20that%20you%20don’t%20have%20to%20pay%20back”>/i</a> that the college had already offered. This doesn’t happen a lot, but you do need to approach the outside-scholarship search process with an awareness that it can happen.</p>